Nice beginning, but becomes a jaaf

Rating: 7/10 (20 January 2006)

I wanted to see this movie because it looked like an eerie remake of an old concept, where things aren't always as they seem and citizens in this utopian society discover a shocking secret.
I loved the feel the first part of the story had. Everything seemed very placid though you could tell things weren't quite right. The plot was already known by watching the trailers, but the actors did a good job of being fairly oblivious to the going ons of the story. It did look a little absurd to have Puma, Aquafina, Xbox and any other brand names in the habitat, but it was funny how the habitants didn't think anything of it.
As far as the leads, I thought they evolved well throughout the film. Scarlett Johansson plays Jordan 2 Delta and Ewan Mcgregor plays Lincoln 6 Echo. They are both extremely photogenic and they work well on the screen. I loved Ewan Mcgregor's improvisation with his clone, and there is a real contrast between his two roles. It could be said that the clones have very little character development, especially if you're an advocate of the nurture theory, so Lincoln 6, while having little personality, is a genuine character with the innocence of a child. His counterpart is a real ass and gets what's coming to him. I always love Steve Buscemi's sort of tell-it-as-it-is/realist attitude in his pictures and he does his job well in this picture as well.
Back to the plot. Lincoln six, being curious in nature, eventually finds out what the "island" actually is. A one way ticket to the operating room where you will be killed by lethal injection immediately after your body parts/baby. The scene with Michael Clarke Duncan is scary and is enough to give you the picture of what these peoples' business is.
After lincoln finds out, he rushes to prevent jordan from suffering the same fate. After that, Scarlett's line in the play sum up the next 45 min or so: "Ruuuun!!!!". It deteriorates into a chase film. The scenes are entertaining for sure, but logically it is a complete miracle they escape. The two scenes that they should have eliminated were the Mac truck scene and the "R" scene, where they fall off a huge logo. That's why I say this turned into a jaaf: Just another action flick.
There are many plot holes and logically, the whole part about innate knowledge of riding a hover cycle was frustrating. Being a nice person, I give it a seven.